A view from the bridge: The dramatic tension felt in the Carbone household by the end of Act 1.

Sinead Aldridge 10N

A view from the bridge: The dramatic tension felt in the Carbone

household by the end of Act 1.

In the late 1940’s Arthur Miller first became interested in the lives and work of the communities of longshoremen of New York’s Brooklyn harbour. It was at this time when he discovered the main plot for A View from the Bridge. Miller’s friend who was a lawyer, and maybe the inspiration for the character Alfieri, told him of a story he had recently heard. This story was about a longshoreman, who had told the immigration bureau on his own relatives, two brothers, who were living in his home. The reason he did this was because one of the brothers, Rodolfo, wanted to marry his niece, who he already had feelings for. So from that point Arthur wrote his play. Miller later visited Sicily. Whilst visiting he saw many young men standing in the centre of a dusty piazza, waiting for work, rather like the way when Marco and Rodolfo told the Carbone family about their way of life back home.

The play was first written as a one act play but later on in 1956 it become a play and from then on it has been performed successfully world-wide.

In this play we learn about the divide between the American and Italian culture. We see in the play that family loyalty is expected as well as trust. Miller started writing this play soon after the Second World War and this is influenced in the play. At this time many Europeans were looking for a better quality life and were therefore emigrating to the “land of opportunity” to live the American dream. However in 1924 the American government introduced new laws that only allowed a certain amount of people from each European country. The new laws affected Italy only allowing a mere 3845 people, which meant that some Italians, had no choice but to enter America Illegally.

The Wall Street crash occurred when over 12 million shares were sold. Although less than one per cent of the American people actually possessed stocks and shares, the Wall Street Crash was to have a tremendous impact on the whole population. The fall in share prices made it difficult for entrepreneurs to raise the money needed to run their companies. Within a short time, 100,000 American companies were forced to close and consequently many workers became unemployed. As there was no national system of unemployment benefit, the purchasing power of the American people fell dramatically. This in turn led to even more unemployment.

As a result of the Wall Street crash in America both sides of the Atlantic suffered an economic crisis. The depression was in the 1930’s and was a time when mainly mine workers and shipworkers were suffering with unemployment.

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Even before Rodolfo and Marco arrived in the Carbone household, tension was already there. Eddie and Beatrice live with their niece, who they treat as if she were their own daughter Catherine is seventeen and is growing up into a young lady. However Eddie doesn’t like this because he still thinks of her as his little girl and because as she has got older we learn that he has developed feelings for Catherine that uncles should not have. When Catherine shows Eddie her new clothes you would expect him to say she looks nice except he says, " You’ve been givin’ me the willies…”

We can see that there is tension between the main characters because when Catherine wants to tell Eddie about her new job she is reluctant to do so. This shouldn’t really be the case because as a family they should be able to talk openly. When Catherine wants to tell Eddie about her new job it seems that she is quite scared and needs the extra support of Beatrice. However even Beatrice seems reluctant to tell Eddie the good news, and she seems to want him to be in a good mood.

“Let him eat first, then we’ll tell him…”

This seems like this a normal situation in the Carbone household but an audience it may see a little odd.

The way Beatrice is concerned about how clean the house is, and not having any food prepared, it seems like they are an ordinary family. However, we know that there are underlying tensions as Beatrice and Eddie seemed to have a very strained relationship. Initially when the cousins arrive, Eddie seems very pleasant and welcoming towards them,

“You Marco…Come on in!”

All of the Carbone family seems to get on with Rodolfo and Marco and ask them many questions:

Eddie: “So what’re you wanna do, you gonna stay here in this country or you wanna go back?”

However this all changes when Rodolfo starts singing. When Roldolfo is half way through “Paper Doll” Eddie interrupts him and tells him to “wait a minute”. However, Catherine is enjoying it and tells Rodolfo to carry on. Then Eddie makes up an excuse saying:

“Look, kid; you don’t want to be picked up, do ya…Because we never had no singers here…and all of a sudden there’s a singer in the house…”

The reason Eddie said this was because he saw that Catherine was enjoying the performance. Then as soon as Eddie has told Rodolfo to be quiet he starts picking on Catherine about her shoes:

“What’s the high heels for Garbo?

Catherine is immediately embarrassed and annoyed with Eddie. Eddie does this because he can see from the beginning that there is an instant attraction between Catherine and Rodolfo.

When Catherine and Rodolfo go out, Eddie is worried about Catherine. He never used to let her go out but since the cousins’ came she has been going out and Eddie doesn’t like it and wants to keep Catherine in all the time and treat her like a baby. When Eddie is worried about the time we learn that Beatrice is a lot more relaxed about the situation than Eddie is. The next day when Catherine and Eddie are talking, we see how jealous Eddie is of the relationship that Catherine and Roldolfo have and how Eddie isn’t involved in Catherine’s life as much as he would like to be.

“Its just I used to come home, you were always there. Now, I turn around, you’re a big girl. I don’t know how to talk to you.”

This shows that Eddie resents the way Catherine is always out with Rodolfo and how he misses talking to her and being around her.

When we lean that Rodolfo can cook, Eddie is the first to insult him. He says sarcastically:

“Its wonderful. He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses…” By saying this Eddie is implying that Rodolfo is homosexual. Although Rodolfo takes this as a compliment but Catherine knows exactly what he means and supports Rodolfo by saying chefs make a lot of money.

Catherine, who is in the middle of an argument between Eddie and the cousins, asks Rodolfo to dance, which adds even more tension to the play. If I was in the audience at this point I would be sat on the edge of my seat as the tension is at its climax. The audience would also be wondering what Eddie is doing as this is very strange behaviour. The song chosen is “Paper Doll”, which is very significant because this song was sung by Rodolfo at the beginning of the play and Catherine was “enthralled” by it. The mood of Catherine when she asked Rodolfo to dance is said to be “flushed with revolt”. This could be because she wants to take revenge on Eddie because of the argument he caused earlier on in the act. Eddie is said to have frozen. This may have been because he was shocked by what Catherine had just said. Rodolfo’s stage direction is “stiffly rise” shows that he is a bit embarrassed to dance with Catherine. At this stage I think the audience would be quite amazed at Catherine’s actions.

Throughout the act Beatrice has been the one who has kept the peace between everyone. She is the one who shows Eddie that he is being unreasonable, She gives Catherine advice, and She defends Marco and Rodolfo when Eddie is insulting them.

The first person we meet in act one is Alfieri. Alfieri is a lawyer and has helped Eddie’s father and he is now helping Eddie with his troubles.

In the play Alfieri is the narrator as well as a main character. He sets the scene for us and fills the gaps with relevant information that needs to be put in place so that the audience understands the play and to create an atmosphere. From the first paragraph we learn that Alfieri already knows what has happened, rather like flashbacks. We know this because Alfieri says:

“You wouldn’t have known it, but something amazing has just happened.” The audience learns to prepare themselves for a “bloody conclusion”. The audience will also learn about the importance of justice and law; “Justice is very important here'

Alfieri is talking in the past when he is the narrator:

“He was a good man”

The first meeting that Alfieri has with Eddie is where Eddie wants to know if there is a legal way to prevent Catherine and Rodolfo marrying. Alfieri’s advice to Eddie is to do nothing or to tell the immigration bureau. He also tells him not to have as much love for Catherine as he does because Alfieri knows about the feelings that Eddie has for Catherine,

“…There is too much love for the niece”

Eddie is upset and angry at this point because both Alfieri and Beatrice know his true feelings towards Catherine.

It’s at this point where the tension is high but it takes a lot of understanding to grasp the true meaning of what Alfieri and Eddie are saying.

By the end of Act 1 the tension reaches a climax. It starts of with the Carbone family and the cousins talking about oranges and lemons. Eddie says: “yeah I heard that they grow like green”

Marco corrects him by saying: No, in Italy oranges are orange.”

Then Rodolfo says:

“Lemons are green”

Resenting his instruction Eddie says:

“ I know lemons are green, for Christ sake you see them in the store they’re green sometimes!”

This outburst creates a lot of tension between everyone. The tension rises as Eddie makes a couple of offensive comments about Marcos family back in Italy.

“I mean, you know they count the kids and there’s a couple extra then when they left”

This would have been very insulting towards Marco. Rodolfo then defends his brother and his country by saying “Its more strict in our town”. Eddie then ” rises, paces up and down” and says, “it ain’t so free here either” By saying this Eddie is commenting on Rodolfo not asking his permission to date Catherine. In the scene where Eddie wants to fight Rodolfo he says things like “watch out Danish” which implies that he wants to hurt Rodolfo and has no respect for him. Eddie grazes Rodolfo; this could be Eddie showing Rodolfo that he is strong and that he shouldn’t be messed with. However, the largest amount of tension is when Marco challenges Eddie to lift a chair. “Can you lift this” is what Marco says but when Eddie can’t Eddie realises that Marco is stronger then he is and that he will do anything to protect his brother from Eddie. The way Marco lifts the chair above his head is rather like the way the Statue of Liberty holds the torch above her head symbolising freedom.

The end of Act one is very effective as it keeps you in suspense; you want to know what will happen next because Miller has built up the tension throughout the act. I think that the audience would be excited about the prospect of what is going to happen next. However they may also be a little nervous of what is going to happen between Eddie and the two brothers.

Throughout act one a lot of tension has been building up which was quite obvious to the audience and the Carbone family. However, at the end of Act one, I don’t think anyone was excepting Marco to react the way he did when challenging Eddie. At the beginning of Act one Marco seemed shy and like he would never challenge Eddie, but by the end Marco is not shy and has challenged Eddie. Many characters have changed throughout Act one; Eddie has realised that he has feelings for Catherine. Catherine has realised that uncles shouldn’t act the way Eddie does towards her, She has also matured and fell in love with Rodolfo. Rodolfo seems nervous by the end of Act one, whereas at the begging he was loud and confident. Beatrice seems to be less gentle towards Catherine and makes her realise that she is a grown woman. Another character that has built up the tension in Act one is Alfieri; he has shared his thoughts and feelings and made the audience aware of the tension in the Carbone family.